This invention relates generally to techniques for removing nail polish from the fingernails or toenails, and more particularly to a disposable thimble capable of quickly dissolving and removing the enamel coating from the nail surfaces of a full set of fingers or toes.
A nail polish is a colored enamel coating applied to the nail surface of a finger or toe. Nail polishes are now in widespread use for cosmetic purposes. Since nail polishes have a relatively short life--for the enamel coating tends to chip off and otherwise become disfigured--it is the practice among women to remove the coating with an enamel solvent. Suitable for this purpose is acetone, a volatile, fragrant, flammable liquid ketone. The old coating, which in some instances may be multi-layered, must be fully removed before fresh polish can be applied.
Typically, nail polish removers are sold in bottles whose caps are provided with an applicator brush so that the user, by means of the brush, is able to apply the solvent to the nail surface to be cleaned. The user, when the polish is dissolved, must then use a tissue or other means to wipe off the dissolved polish from the nail surface. This is a somewhat complicated and messy operation. Moreover, the applicator brush becomes contaminated with the removed polish; and if returned to the bottle without first being cleaned, it contaminates the solvent therein.
In order to facilitate nail polish procedures, kits are now commercially available, such as the "Andrea--Swirl Off" kit marketed by Andrea Raab Corporation of Brooklyn, N.Y. This kit takes the form of a relatively large cylindrical container having a screw-on cap within which is a sponge saturated with an acetone solution. The sponge is provided with a central slit into which is inserted a dabber having a wire handle.
To use this kit for removing polish from fingernails, the dabber must first be taken out and set aside, the user inserting a finger in the slot which she then rotates relative to the container using circular up and down motion. The dabber which is also saturated with solvent is used when polish is to be removed from toenails or from the cuticle area.
The "Swirl Off" kit has a solvent capacity to work on hundreds of nails. But since the colored enamel removed from the nails necessarily remains in the sponge, the sponge becomes increasingly discolored thereby and becomes less effective with repeated use, so that the capacity is somewhat wasted and it is necessary to use a fresh kit before the solvent in the used kit is exhausted.